Major Takeaways:
Historian Jon Meacham warns America is entering a dangerous period where deep divisions could destabilize democracy.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk adds to a growing list of politically motivated violence.
Meacham stresses America’s survival depends on keeping debates political, not violent
Pulitzer Prize winning historian Jon Meacham doesn’t sugarcoat it: America is in a dangerous place. Speaking on CBS’ Sunday Morning, the author of The Soul of America laid it out plain we’ve been here before, and we might be here again, but this moment is not the one we want to repeat.
The question tearing at the nation’s soul? Who counts as an American? Who belongs in “We the People”? Meacham says whenever that basic idea is under dispute, history shows violence follows.
This week, we saw that play out. At Utah Valley University, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, just 31, was gunned down during a public debate. By the next day, police had a suspect in custody: 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.
Kirk was no stranger to controversy. He built his name as a firebrand on the right, calling Trump the “bodyguard of Western civilization” at the 2020 Republican convention and blasting Democrats as plotting to turn America into a “third-world hellhole.” His sudden assassination now adds fuel to a country already burning with division.
And it’s not an isolated act. In just over a year, the U.S. has been rocked by assassination attempts on Donald Trump, the firebombing of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home, the killings of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, embassy staff murdered in D.C., and a police officer shot dead outside CDC headquarters in Atlanta.
“This is not the America we want,” Meacham warned. “If we lose the ability to argue, dissent, and debate without violence, we’re breaking faith with the American covenant.”
That covenant, he says, was never about harmony — it was about struggle. About working through difference without turning difference into bloodshed. Think about Omaha Beach, the Pettus Bridge, Gettysburg. Those moments weren’t perfect — far from it — but they showed ordinary Americans pushing toward a “more perfect union.”
Meacham’s message for leaders and everyday people alike: Tell the story. Make the case. Remind the country what we’re fighting for. Because if the past teaches us anything, it’s that survival depends not on silencing opponents but respecting them enough to keep the fight political, not physical.
“Barely,” Meacham admits, we’ve made it through before. But barely is still survival. And today, he says, that’s the only way forward.
